


Don't you want to take a ride with me?

by PepperCat



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Awkwardness, I swear it's probably not as interesting as the tags make it sound, Innuendo, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Rough Sex, Sex on a Car, Sexual Content, Teasing, mild freak-out, offscreen car theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 08:56:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12553848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperCat/pseuds/PepperCat
Summary: "You ever been up outside the city? Gotten a chance to look down on all the lights?""Done that, thank you.""Well then you've gotta come with me, Pipes." Hartley looked back down and Axel was stretching out one hand, and Hartley reached out in something like reflex. "Make sure I don't miss anything." Axel was holding his hand, just lightly, thumb running over the back of Hartley's knuckles. "Please?"





	Don't you want to take a ride with me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ameliapll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ameliapll/gifts).



> Well, I had this half-written at the end of July, and as it is now the end of _October_ , I think I understand why I generally do not write much smut. (And I thought I was slow with non-PWP stuff. Yeesh.)

"Hey, Pipes." The voice was that lazy rolling purr that meant Axel was especially pleased with himself, and Hartley tried to ignore the shiver it sent down his spine and keep walking. He'd been late at the library, and it felt good to stretch his legs. Even if the route home from the library was fairly short and direct, which meant extroverted roommates knew where to find him if they were looking. "Want a ride?"

The car was a hot, faintly shimmering topaz-orange, the colour of a sun that was just starting to set. It was a late-model sports car--something cheap, a low-end Porsche or Ferrari. The license plate said ALL PLAY. That alone had probably caught Axel's attention.

Hartley looked away and kept walking. The car crept along beside him, oddly quiet. "Who did you steal this one from?"

"Didn't check," Axel said. "C'mon, Pipes. We've got nowhere to be. Wanna get out of here? Could make it to Star City in three hours, you wanna visit your friend."

" _That_ sounds survivable."

Axel laughed. "For you, I'll take four. You like it slow, right?"

Hartley stopped and turned to face the car. It idled to a stop, still purring to itself, and Axel leaned over, grinning up at him from the passenger-side window.

"Kindly don't get yourself killed."

"I'll drive safer with you in the car, you're worried about that," Axel said. "Don't you trust me to take care of you?" He tipped his head towards the dash. "Already killed the engine noise, see?"

"It's a good night for a walk." The air was damp with the promise of rain but warm, and a light breeze kept it from being anything close to stifling. It was a rare and lovely weather, and it made Hartley's skin itch to be up and doing something. Walking seemed safest.

"It's a great night for a drive."

"I'm not interested in a trip to Starling."

"We can do something else." Axel's grin was the soft one, the one it was hard to see the edges of. Hartley glanced away for a minute, up and down the street, heard Axel still talking. "You ever been up outside the city? Gotten a chance to look down on all the lights?"

"Done that, thank you."

"Well then you've gotta come with me, Pipes." Hartley looked back down and Axel was stretching out one hand, and Hartley reached out in something like reflex. "Make sure I don't miss anything." Axel was holding his hand, just lightly, thumb running over the back of Hartley's knuckles. "Please?"

* * *

Central glittered. The clouds threw a dull golden haze back down at the city, and the ribbons and spires of roads and buildings wove studded lines of light in counterpoint to each other, red and blue-white and gold. Between the wind and the coming rain, there was just enough haze in the air to make the lights flicker.

Axel left the engine running and hopped out of the car, stretched and then sat against the hood. Hartley, knowing from experience that a question of _what are you doing?_ was the kind of thing Axel met with encouragement rather than an answer, got gingerly out of the passenger side and closed the door. Axel looked back at him and grinned.

"See?" he said, waving at the city. "Better view. Don't wanna stay stuck inna car, you can get a look at all this." He turned back to the lights. Hartley hesitated a moment and then went to lean against the car next to him, but Axel looped one arm around his waist and pulled, and he was leaning against Axel instead, the other man's breath warm in his ear.

Hartley didn't _stop_ breathing, just paused for a second. It wasn't a new thing; Axel was casual about contact, comfortable, easy; Hartley had gotten used to it, understood that it didn't mean it was leading anywhere on any particular given day.

But the night air was subtly electric, and there was no-one else around for miles.

"You good?" Soft in his ear. He nodded, not sure of what to say, and heard Axel purr in his ear. "Me too. Said you've been up here before, right?"

"Not here specifically." The correction was something to hold on to; a neat little array of fact to be dealt out as he tried to find his feet. "Close to here, but the bluff belonged to the Lembergs and they walled off that part of their property--you can't get to it anymore from the public roads."

"Wanna go anyway?" Axel was wearing a jacket--not his coat, thank goodness, the lapel spikes on that thing were _not_ comfortable to lean on--and Hartley could feel the fold of it through his shirt, the slightly warmer stretch of Axel's chest against the back of his shoulder and arm. "Point the way, Pipes. I can be real good about following directions."

"That is _hardly_ a quality I would associate with you."

"Try me."

Hartley felt several things bubbling up in his throat and settled for "I think I'm fine here." His voice wasn't shaking, but it was soft and he couldn't seem to get it louder. Axel laughed a little and laced his fingers together over Hartley's stomach.

"Okay," he said companionably, and they stayed there for a moment. It wasn't really quiet; there was the engine and the wind and the sound of Axel--breathing, heartbeat--and ten thousand blades of grass sawing against each other and a distant crepitant sound that was either water condensing with itself and getting ready to fall from the clouds or the heartbeat in Central's concrete veins. But it was a lot of soft low background noise, the kind of thing that usually let Hartley start to relax a little.

Axel's warmth--chest and body and breath pressingly lightly against him, arms holding him easily close--was making relaxing a little harder than usual.

"What did you mean when you said you fixed the engine noise?" he said after a moment.

Axel made a small satisfied noise. "New cars, some of them--" he shifted one leg to tap a heel against the bumper for emphasis, and as he moved Hartley straightened a little-- "run quiet, right? So they put recordings in. Engine noise so the car still sounds fast. Didn't think you'd like that."

"You thought about me, how nice."

"I'm _always_ nice," Axel said, his grin at Hartley's ear. "Awh, Pipes, you're shivering. I didn't think it was that cold." It wasn't. It was warm enough for shirtsleeves, or would have been if Axel's mouth near his throat wasn't making him break out in goosebumps. "Did we get here too fast?"

"You do everything too fast."

"I told you, I told you... I'll slow down for you." He laughed. "Hell, say the word, I'll take you home, you want that. Okay?" Hartley could feel the curve of the other man's smile, just below and behind his ear. Axel waited until he nodded before continuing. "But if you came up here before--even close to here--I kinda wanna hear about it."

"It wasn't like that."

"Like what?" Axel's hands were resting on Hartley's stomach, and one of his thumbs was flicking idly at a shirt-button.

"...like this."

"D'you want this to be like this?" Axel was grinning again, Hartley could hear it.

"If you wanted this to be like this, you should have stolen something with a bigger back seat," Hartley said dryly, and Axel laughed.

"Oh, babe," mouth on Hartley's neck outright, and the wet contact made Hartley jolt. "I _do_ want this, and I wouldn't throw you down in the dirt, not a guy like you. But we've got options, right?" He turned around, and Hartley twisted to keep his back to the car, got his hands onto Axel's shoulders and looked up at him.

He'd been looking down at the glimmer-spread of Central so long he'd forgotten it was dark out here. The backsplash of running lights touched the edges of Axel's face, and Hartley could see his smile.

It wasn't one of the sharp ones.

"On the _car_?" he said, as he moved his hands from Axel's shoulders to his chest and began pushing back Axel's jacket. Axel groaned a little, pressed against him, pinning him back against the car.

"Better than the ground, easier than the back seat."

"We're out in the open."

"No-one around for miles." Hartley hooked one of his feet behind Axel's back, leaned up as the other man moved between his spread legs, and finally managed to push Axel's jacket off and down his arms.

"Condoms?"

"Give me a sec," Axel said, fingers in Hartley's hair, "pretty sure there's a couple in my jacket..."

"You're prepared."

"I was a Boy Scout," and that startled Hartley into a laugh. Axel grinned against his mouth. "Wanna turn around?"

Hartley shook his head, pushing up Axel's shirt. "Like this."

That groan again, smug and luxurious. "I _knew_ you liked watching me."

* * *

Flirting's fine--Axel's always glad to watch Piper catch his breath for a second, see a blush stutter red under his skin, and it feels good to know just how fast he can get Piper's attention. But it's better when Piper goes from paying attention to skinning off Axel's shirt and holding on, pulling Axel close with hands shivering just a little, like getting right up against each other's the only thing that'll keep them from freezing.

He gets his arms around Piper and at least manages to get that stupid button-up shirt up if not off, gets his hands on soft skin and tense muscle beneath it. He can feel Piper pressing hard through his pants, just begging for Axel's attention.

It's not fucking Piper under the open sky so much as any chance to have him first in some way, getting that glass-smooth poise to buckle someplace new. It's gorgeous in a way he doesn't need to see Piper to know, can feel it in the slender body drawn tripwire-taut against him and the whipsaw of his breath, the way Piper clings to his back and presses his throat up against Axel's mouth when Axel licks down from his jaw.

Axel purrs _mine_ , very low, and Piper holds his breath at that but his hands shake. Axel catches it fast, that minute when what he thought was a scar is something closer to a wound, and winds one hand into Piper's hair, kisses him slow.

He likes the guy, doesn't want to hurt him, not even by accident.

"Never done this before, Pipes? You're fucking gorgeous like this." Not the words so much as Piper _hearing_ something, he thinks, but whatever works. He rocks slowly between Piper's thighs, kisses him again when he feels him groan. "Love feeling you, babe, hang on, told you I've got this..."

He lets go to open his pants and both Piper's hands are on his arms then, Piper staring unabashed down at him, and Axel smirks, slows down a little. Pipes makes the prettiest little growling noise in his throat, and Axel grins, leans his hands on the hood on either side of Piper's thighs and bends forward so that their foreheads are touching.

"Get these off me," he says and nearly laughs at how fast Piper obeys, but then Piper takes it a step further and wraps his hand around Axel's dick, stroke and gentle pull, hand practically gliding--

Axel groans and shoves his tongue into Piper's mouth. "You've done _that_ before." Piper laughs a little, pleased, and it's like music in Axel's mouth; he closes his eyes for a moment, lets Piper's fingers tease and pull until his breath starts to quicken and he's muttering _wait_ against Piper's tongue, has a chance to pull back when the other man's hand slows.

"'S'okay," kissing him again, "just you keep doing that and I'm not gonna get a chance to fuck you. Let me." He reaches down, hooks his jacket and tosses it onto the hood of the car. Pockets, pockets, not a plan just a hope and now the need to make sure it's okay; _I'll take care of you_ , pretty sure he said that or something like it and anyway he meant it. Piper's kicking out of his pants and has his thumbs in the waistband of his briefs; he pulls them down and wiggles them off just as Axel finds the lube, leans back against the hood of the car.

Axel hooks one of his legs up and bends over him. Piper's breathing quick and light, his stomach fluttering, and Axel goes slow, fingers and lube, careful. He can do careful when it matters.

Hard to tell in the dark but he thinks Piper's eyes are closing, and he starts murmuring a string of words that don't mean anything but _are you listening_. "Like that, right? Oh, Piper. Let me do this again I'll get you out under a light, wanna see you when you moan like that, move like this, _fuck_ you feel good--" Piper's hand is working between them, and Axel grabs his wrist and pulls it aside, feels Piper buck underneath him--

"Axel, Axe, _please_ , let me, let go, I won't-- please just let me--"

"No no _no_ ," soft little croon and Piper's hips are moving faster as he keeps working fingers and lube up inside. "Don't you be getting off without me, babe, give me a minute, just a minute--" He feels Piper's other leg hook around him, trying to pull him closer, and resists. It's not easy--he's not as much stronger than Piper as Piper thinks--but it's worth it to hear Piper's reaction as all that polite _please_ gets dropped.

" _Fuck_ a minute, Axel, you fucking tease, you--"

Axel stops--just long enough to get the condom on, but Piper's jerking himself off again and he grabs the other man's wrists and pins them down on the hood. Hears what he's sure are curses over that--he is going to _insist_ Piper translate later--and then gets both Piper's wrists under one of his hands so he can guide himself inside.

Piper presses up under him, and the noise he makes that time isn't words.

He's tight, never mind the fingers and lube, but he's got his legs hooked around Axel again, pulling him closer and deeper. Axel barely has to do a thing, just move a little and enjoy Piper twitching under him, straining up for a gasping kiss as Axel's driving in. Axel's grinning, presses his mouth against Piper's.

"Fucking incredible," not sure what he's saying but he doesn't care as long as his precious little geek keeps trying to get closer. He hooks one of Piper's legs up with his free hand and gets deeper, laughs at the shuddering moan it wrings out of Piper's throat, muttering something about _held down_ and _fucked_ and _so fucking tight_ until he gives up on words for what it's like feeling Piper _move_ like that, the slick heat of him as he shoves himself back onto Axel's dick.

All he can say is Piper's name over and over and he lets go of Piper's wrists, grabs his hips so he can hang on and fuck him harder. Nails claw raw ribbons into Axel's back and Piper's kissing him or biting him, something hard and frantic, and then he hisses _Trickster_ into Axel's mouth like a benediction and Axel just barely jerks his head aside to bite down on the soft join of neck and shoulder as he comes right up Piper's ass.

He tastes sweat and rain and feels the wet spill of Piper coming between them, collapses over the shuddering body underneath him, and they're heaving breaths a little out of sync as Piper's pinned against still-warm metal. Piper gets his fingernails out of Axel's shoulders and Axel stretches his arms up on the hood of the car and settles his head on Piper's shoulder. It's raining but it's a thin rain, still warm, and he doesn't much care yet. Getting laid is a good reason to not sweat the small stuff, a good chance to fold up over someone and watch their eyes stop rolling back in their head.

* * *

It was hard catching his breath with Axel on top of him--not a _bad_ hard, just slow, the hot live weight of the other man making it hard to draw a deep breath. It was starting to rain, little fresh speckles he noticed on his legs and shoulders, tiny blurs plucked into existence on the lenses of his glasses.

Axel shifted his weight onto his forearms, pushed himself up and grinned down. Between the darkness and the rain on his glasses, Hartley could see his grin but not his eyes. He glanced away and drew a deeper breath.

Axel gave another of those luxuriant groans. "You're something," he said, leaning down enough to touch his mouth to the side of Hartley's throat. "I've gotta steal more cars."

Hartley made the small exasperated noise that meant _oh come on now_ and gathered himself enough to push at Axel's shoulder. "Let me up."

"'kay." Axel straightened up and pulled away and Hartley pulled his shirt back down, started dragging his clothes back on, didn't clean his glasses, didn't look at anything. He was wiping his hands clean on the grass when he realized the air was darker but drier, and he looked up to see Axel holding his jacket between Hartley and the rain.

He straightened up and let Axel drop it around his shoulders.

"Thanks." He kept his voice light because it shouldn't be a big deal and then it sounded too casual and he really wasn't sure how to course-correct for this, exactly, but he was standing right there so he leaned up and kissed Axel. Nothing dramatic, nothing-- nothing complicated, that's the point.

Axel kissed him back a moment, then poked his shoulder gently, not too different from what Hartley did to him. "Get in the car."

Hartley did. Axel joined him and poked at the buttons on the dash and then there was warm air coming from everywhere and the car seat was heating up and Hartley just leaned back and closed his eyes. Heard the passenger-side window going up and the warm air started cocooning around him.

"Thanks," he said softly after a minute, and worried about repeating himself, and then decided he didn't care.

"You warm enough?"

"Mm-hm." Hartley reached up to take his glasses off and started drying them. The windshield and passenger-side window were starting to run with rain as the drops got bigger and came faster; the drumming on the roof picked up speed. "What you said," he began after a moment. "Don't _actually_ steal cars on my account, please."

He heard Axel murmur something and felt the other man run fingertips through his hair, brushing it back behind his ear. Didn't lean into the touch or look away from his glasses. "Not just on your account."

"Still." He wanted to say _please_ again and thought it would sound odd.

...part of him really wanted to say _please_ again.

Instead he slipped his glasses on and looked down at his hands, the one cradling the wrist of the other. The jacket was a comfortable weight around his shoulders, smelling of leather and night air and rain.

Axel made another noise, thoughtful. "What if I pretended? Just long enough for it to be fun."

\--it was not fair, how often Axel could hit a nerve. It really wasn't.

"Sorry?" Hartley said distantly, staring down at his hands as if he were just distracted. There was something dark on his fingertips, and he curled them out of sight. Axel laughed.

"What if I pretended?" he said. Hartley heard him turning in his seat, his voice coming clearer, and imagined Axel watching with that bright considering look in his eyes, that _I could_ _ **do**_ _something with this_ grin. "To steal a car. Hell, steal _your_ car, if you want."

"I don't _have_ a car."

"We can fake it. You liked being held down, right? Wanna play carjacker and rich boy, Pipes?" His voice dropped to that lazy rolling purr. "I'll wear my mask, you want."

The oddest feeling in his chest, light and fluffy and airless, like his heart had been scrambled; it was almost a distraction from the blood under his nails.

Hartley swallowed and his voice was steady but thin, but the only thing he could think to say was, "You're evil."

Axel laughed. "No no no, I'd be good." He was stroking Hartley's hair again. "I'd be so good, Pipes, I'd take care of everything." Axel's fingers tightened in his hair and tugged gently, and Hartley curled his own nails into his palms. "Find someplace to take you no-one'd come looking, get you all properly stripped and spread out on the hood, fuck you 'til you're begging me to let you come instead of let you go--"

"I hardly need your permission--"

"You would," Axel said, with utter assurance, and Hartley thought of the blood on his nails that he hadn't planned for and squeezed his eyes shut so hard he saw colours and shuddered and if he hadn't just come he couldn't swear he wouldn't have done it again, heard Axel laughing and pushed it away, concentrated on the blood roaring in his own ears and the regular wet slip-rolling sound of the rain, it sounded like the water was _everywhere_.

"Piper." Axel's hand was on the back of his neck and he'd stopped laughing, sounded worried, fantastic, that was just something else he'd have to deal with in a moment. "Pipes, oh, hey, babe-- it's okay-- Piper, hey, come here." He felt Axel's arm around his shoulders, leaned towards the other man just to make the angle a little less awkward. "Hey, babe, it's okay, it's okay, I'm sorry. What's wrong?"

"I'm _fine_ ," Hartley said. His throat hurt, and the shoulder of that violently clashing and presumably stained T-shirt Axel was wearing was soaked. He pushed up his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. "I'm _fine_ , don't be ridiculous, I'm just-- I just--" Stupid self-indulgent fragile selfish detail-obsessed-- "I'm sorry I hurt you."

" _Hurt_ me?"

"I made you bleed."

Axel made a dismissive noise possibly best described as _tchah_. It stirred Hartley's hair against his forehead. "That's all fun, that's not _hurting_."

"Bloodshed," Hartley said stuffily, "is generally considered hurting."

"Well, yeah, if we were _fighting_."

"It wasn't _not_ fighting."

"It was _totally_ not fighting," Axel said. "I was not fighting you. We've _been_ in fights, right?"

He paused. Hartley considered the times they'd indisputably fought and he supposed technically there'd been a little more animosity involved. The quiet--well, the lack of talking, the rain was still coming down hard enough that Hartley wasn't quite prepared to call it _quiet_ \--lasted for a minute before he muttered an embarrassingly ungracious version of _I suppose not_.

Axel nodded, finger-combing Hartley's hair with his free hand. "This wasn't that, babe. We got a little rough, it happens. You didn't _hurt_ me." He tilted Hartley's face up towards his own. "You marked me up, you didn't fuck me up. I'm fine, I'm right here. Deep breath, okay?"

"My breathing's _fine_."

"Uh-huh." Axel sounded calm, but Hartley could hear his heart quickening a little through the sound of the rain. "What about you?"

"What?"

Axel's eyes flicked across his face. "I mean, guessing you're at _least_ gonna bruise in a couple spots, right? Just wondering if..." He shrugged.

 _You didn't hurt me._ There'd be bruises, but it felt true, and if Hartley was going to wake up aching tomorrow he was at least sure it wouldn't be exactly unpleasant. "I'm fine," he said, and then shook his head. "I'm-- really, I am. I'm alright."

"Really?"

"Just a little stiff."

Axel snickered. "I'm not touching that."

"First time you've said _that_ ," Hartley said, still a little shaky, and Axel laughed.

"I'm being good!"

"Oh, well." Hartley managed a slightly arch tone. "Please don't constrain yourself on _my_ account."

"I'll do a lot of things on your account." Axel could've put a twist into the words somehow, Hartley was sure, but instead he just sounded comforting. Comfortable. Something. "Come on, Pipes. You wanna get out of here?"

"Isn't that how all this started?"

Axel laughed. "Different goals, babe," he said, grinning. "I'm thinking dry clothes, maybe dinner, a spot to ditch this class-C felony?"

"Sure," Hartley said. He straightened up a little, leaned back in the seat. Axel squeezed his hand before taking the steering wheel. "Go slow?"

"Anytime."

**Author's Note:**

> I swear this would have gotten posted last night if it hadn't been for the after-scene (which was a lot more acrimonious in the original version; apparently I head-canon Hartley as reacting really badly to being teased, g'figure).
> 
> I tried to tag appropriately; please let me know if I've missed something!
> 
> The title, unoriginally, is from Poe's "Hey Pretty".
> 
> (The car theft is a class C felony because, despite Hartley getting sniffy about it being low-end sports car, it definitely clears the $25K threshold for that crime. I actually saw a yellow sports car with that license plate, and it struck me that it was the kind of thing Axel would probably think was fun to play with.)


End file.
